Catharine Sedgwick
Encyclopedia
Catharine Maria Sedgwick (December 28, 1789 – July 31, 1867), was an American
novel
ist of what is now referred to as "domestic fiction". She promoted Republican motherhood
.
.
Her mother was Pamela Dwight (1752–1807) of the New England Dwight family
, daughter of General Joseph Dwight (1703–1765) and granddaughter of Ephraim Williams
, founder of Williams College
. Her father was Theodore Sedgwick
(1746–1813), a prosperous lawyer
and successful politician. He was later elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
and in 1802 was appointed a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
.
As a child, Sedgwick was cared for by Elizabeth Freeman, a former slave whose freedom her father helped gain by arguing her case in county court in 1781. After winning her freedom Freeman accepted the Sedgwick's offer to work for them for wages. As a young woman, Sedgwick attended a finishing school
in Boston
to complete her education. One of her schoolmates, Susan Anne Ridley Sedgwick
(1788–1867), would become her sister-in-law and a published author.
. She converted from Calvinism
to Unitarianism
, which led her to write a pamphlet denouncing religious intolerance
. This further inspired her to write her first novel, A New-England Tale.
With her work much in demand, from the 1820s to the 1850s, Sedgwick made a good living writing short stories for a variety of periodicals. She died in 1867, and by the end of the 19th century, she had been relegated to near obscurity. There was a rise of male critics who deprecated women's writing as they worked to create an American literature.
Interest in Sedgwick's works and an appreciation of her contribution to American literature has been stimulated by the late 20th century's feminist movement. Beginning in the 1960s, feminist scholars began to re-evaluate women's contributions to literature and other arts, and created new frames of reference for considering their work. In addition, the advent of low-cost electronic reproductions, which became available at the end of the 20th century, made Sedgwick and other nineteenth-century authors' work more accessible for study and pleasure.
Edgar Allan Poe
described Sedgwick in his "The Literati of New York City" (1846).
Sedgwick is buried in the family plot
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
. Her family arranged to have Freeman buried in their family plot as well, and had a tombstone inscribed for her.
with protests against historic Puritan
oppressiveness. Her topics contributed to the creation of a national literature, enhanced by her detailed descriptions of nature. Sedgwick created spirited heroines who did not conform to the stereotypical conduct of women at the time. In her final novel, Married or Single (1857), she put forth the bold idea that women should not marry if it meant they would lose their self-respect (but she married off her heroine).
(1827), recounted a dramatic conflict between the British Empire
, colonists and Native Americans
. The book earned a large readership and established the author's reputation in both the United States and Great Britain
.
Using the techniques of the "New Criticism
" of the 1950s, Judith Fetterley (1998) provides a close reading of Hope Leslie. She notes both the areas in which the heroine Leslie (and thus the author), is ahead of her time, and the areas in which she is a product of her time. Leslie constantly challenges the role of women suggested during the colonial period. Sedgwick portrays Leslie as living in a hostile world, where as a woman, she creates a holistic public role that is not separate from the private sphere. Sedgwick regularly uses the rhetoric of "sameness" when comparing Leslie and the main male character, Everell.
Her treatment of her characters is both radical and conservative. For instance, Fetterley believes that Leslie is repulsed to discover that her long-lost sister, Faith Leslie, taken captive by Indians, has "gone native", assimilated and married an Indian. Sedgwick portrays the Indian woman Magawisca sympathetically. But she viewed nonwhite women as a threat to the efforts of white women to establish themselves independently in society, and seemed to write nonwhite women out of the future by expressing the contemporary belief that American Indians
were a vanishing race.
Barbara Bardes and Suzanne Gossett differ in opinions about the meaning of Hope Leslie. They see the figure of Magawisca as a double for Hope Leslie, and note that the author did research on Mohawk customs and presents their religion sympathetically. Because Sedgwick portrays Faith Leslie's marriage to an Indian and refusal to rejoin the Puritan community, they see her as more open to American-Native American relations than was James Fenimore Cooper
, for instance, whose novel Last of the Mohicans (1826) was published the year before.
. Sedgwick uses a cosmopolitan framework to shed light on American character and national identity in the early republic by exploring America's relationship with Britain and France. The balance between American nationalism and cosmopolitanism is idealized in the novel through the character of the Marquis de Lafayette, as is the struggle between Old World notions of class and the reality of American democracy.
's subsequent publications, A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841) and The American Woman's Home (1869), similarly promoted the importance of the "labor contract" in these relationships.
(See Richard Bushman, Refinement in America, 1992, pp. 276–79 for a discussion of the above three novels)
Other Writings:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist of what is now referred to as "domestic fiction". She promoted Republican motherhood
Republican motherhood
"Republican Motherhood" is a 20th century term for an attitude toward women's roles present in the emerging United States before, during, and after the American Revolution . It centered on the belief that the patriots' daughters should be raised to uphold the ideals of republicanism, in order to...
.
Biography
Catharine Maria Sedgwick was born December 28, 1789 in Stockbridge, MassachusettsStockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
.
Her mother was Pamela Dwight (1752–1807) of the New England Dwight family
New England Dwight family
The New England Dwight family had many members who were military leaders, educators, jurists, authors, businessmen and clergymen.Around 1634 John Dwight came with his wife Hannah, daughter Hannah, and sons Timothy Dwight and John Dwight, from Dedham, Essex, England to North America where the town...
, daughter of General Joseph Dwight (1703–1765) and granddaughter of Ephraim Williams
Ephraim Williams
Ephraim Williams Jr. was a soldier from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was killed in the French and Indian War. He was the benefactor of Williams College, located in northwestern Massachusetts.-Early life:...
, founder of Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
. Her father was Theodore Sedgwick
Theodore Sedgwick
Theodore Sedgwick was an attorney, politician and jurist, who served in elected state government and as a Delegate to the Continental Congress, a US Representative, and a United States Senator from Massachusetts. He served as the fifth Speaker of the United States House of Representatives...
(1746–1813), a prosperous lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and successful politician. He was later elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
and in 1802 was appointed a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SJC has the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere.-History:...
.
As a child, Sedgwick was cared for by Elizabeth Freeman, a former slave whose freedom her father helped gain by arguing her case in county court in 1781. After winning her freedom Freeman accepted the Sedgwick's offer to work for them for wages. As a young woman, Sedgwick attended a finishing school
Finishing school
A finishing school is "a private school for girls that emphasises training in cultural and social activities." The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the educational experience, with classes primarily on etiquette...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
to complete her education. One of her schoolmates, Susan Anne Ridley Sedgwick
Susan Anne Ridley Sedgwick
Susan Anne Livingston Ridley Sedgwick was a 19th Century American writer specializing in children's novels. She is also painted a watercolor-on-ivory portrait of an ex-slave who came to work for her family....
(1788–1867), would become her sister-in-law and a published author.
Career
As a young woman, Sedgwick took charge of a school in LenoxLenox, Massachusetts
Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. Where the town has a border with Stockbridge is the site of Tanglewood, summer...
. She converted from Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
to Unitarianism
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
, which led her to write a pamphlet denouncing religious intolerance
Religious intolerance
Religious intolerance is intolerance against another's religious beliefs or practices.-Definition:The mere statement on the part of a religion that its own beliefs and practices are correct and any contrary beliefs incorrect does not in itself constitute intolerance...
. This further inspired her to write her first novel, A New-England Tale.
With her work much in demand, from the 1820s to the 1850s, Sedgwick made a good living writing short stories for a variety of periodicals. She died in 1867, and by the end of the 19th century, she had been relegated to near obscurity. There was a rise of male critics who deprecated women's writing as they worked to create an American literature.
Interest in Sedgwick's works and an appreciation of her contribution to American literature has been stimulated by the late 20th century's feminist movement. Beginning in the 1960s, feminist scholars began to re-evaluate women's contributions to literature and other arts, and created new frames of reference for considering their work. In addition, the advent of low-cost electronic reproductions, which became available at the end of the 20th century, made Sedgwick and other nineteenth-century authors' work more accessible for study and pleasure.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
described Sedgwick in his "The Literati of New York City" (1846).
She is about the medium height, perhaps a little below it. Her forehead is an unusually fine one nose of a slightly Roman curve; eyes dark and piercing; mouth well-formed and remarkably pleasant in its expression. The portrait in “Graham's Magazine” is by no means a likeness, and, although the hair is represented as curled, (Miss Sedgwick at present wears a cap—at least, most usually,) gives her the air of being much older than she is.
Sedgwick is buried in the family plot
Sedgwick Pie
The "Sedgwick Pie" is one of the more unusual family cemetery plots in the United States. It is the family burial plot of the Sedgwick family in Stockbridge Cemetery, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and gets its nickname from its shape and layout.-Description:...
in Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
. Her family arranged to have Freeman buried in their family plot as well, and had a tombstone inscribed for her.
Critical response
Sedgwick became one of the most notable female novelists of her time. She wrote work in American settings, and combined patriotismPatriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
with protests against historic Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
oppressiveness. Her topics contributed to the creation of a national literature, enhanced by her detailed descriptions of nature. Sedgwick created spirited heroines who did not conform to the stereotypical conduct of women at the time. In her final novel, Married or Single (1857), she put forth the bold idea that women should not marry if it meant they would lose their self-respect (but she married off her heroine).
Hope Leslie
Sedgwick's third novel, Hope LeslieHope Leslie
Hope Leslie or Early Times in the Massachusetts is a novel written by Catharine Maria Sedgwick. The book is considered significant because of its strong feminist overtones and ideas of equity and fairness toward Native Americans, both of which were rare at the time the book was written. The book is...
(1827), recounted a dramatic conflict between the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, colonists and Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. The book earned a large readership and established the author's reputation in both the United States and Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
.
Using the techniques of the "New Criticism
New Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...
" of the 1950s, Judith Fetterley (1998) provides a close reading of Hope Leslie. She notes both the areas in which the heroine Leslie (and thus the author), is ahead of her time, and the areas in which she is a product of her time. Leslie constantly challenges the role of women suggested during the colonial period. Sedgwick portrays Leslie as living in a hostile world, where as a woman, she creates a holistic public role that is not separate from the private sphere. Sedgwick regularly uses the rhetoric of "sameness" when comparing Leslie and the main male character, Everell.
Her treatment of her characters is both radical and conservative. For instance, Fetterley believes that Leslie is repulsed to discover that her long-lost sister, Faith Leslie, taken captive by Indians, has "gone native", assimilated and married an Indian. Sedgwick portrays the Indian woman Magawisca sympathetically. But she viewed nonwhite women as a threat to the efforts of white women to establish themselves independently in society, and seemed to write nonwhite women out of the future by expressing the contemporary belief that American Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
were a vanishing race.
Barbara Bardes and Suzanne Gossett differ in opinions about the meaning of Hope Leslie. They see the figure of Magawisca as a double for Hope Leslie, and note that the author did research on Mohawk customs and presents their religion sympathetically. Because Sedgwick portrays Faith Leslie's marriage to an Indian and refusal to rejoin the Puritan community, they see her as more open to American-Native American relations than was James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
, for instance, whose novel Last of the Mohicans (1826) was published the year before.
The Linwoods
The Linwoods; or, 'Sixty Years Since' in America (1835) is an historical romance set during the American RevolutionAmerican Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. Sedgwick uses a cosmopolitan framework to shed light on American character and national identity in the early republic by exploring America's relationship with Britain and France. The balance between American nationalism and cosmopolitanism is idealized in the novel through the character of the Marquis de Lafayette, as is the struggle between Old World notions of class and the reality of American democracy.
Live and Let Live
Live and Let Live; or, Domestic Service Illustrated (1837) depicts the ideal workplaces for working-class women to develop domestic skills. Sedgwick's expression of relations between mistress-employer and housekeepers reflects a return to aristocratic class relations, but one that includes employer respect for the employee's humanity and political rights. Domestic economist Catharine BeecherCatharine Beecher
Catharine Esther Beecher was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on women's education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education....
's subsequent publications, A Treatise on Domestic Economy (1841) and The American Woman's Home (1869), similarly promoted the importance of the "labor contract" in these relationships.
Writings
Novels:- A New-England Tale (1822)
- Redwood (1824)
- Hope LeslieHope LeslieHope Leslie or Early Times in the Massachusetts is a novel written by Catharine Maria Sedgwick. The book is considered significant because of its strong feminist overtones and ideas of equity and fairness toward Native Americans, both of which were rare at the time the book was written. The book is...
(1827) - Clarence (1830)
- The Twin Lives of Edwin Robbins (1832)
- The Linwoods (1835)
- Home (Boston, 1835)
- The Poor Rich Man, and the Rich Poor Man (New York, 1837)
- Live and Let Live
(See Richard Bushman, Refinement in America, 1992, pp. 276–79 for a discussion of the above three novels)
- The Boy of Mount Rhigi (1848)
- Married or Single? (1857)
Other Writings:
- Letters from Abroad to Kindred at Home, in two volumes (1841)
- Slavery in New England, in Bentley's Miscellany (1853), based on the experience of her governess and parents' housekeeper, African American ex-slave Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett)
Further reading
- Elmore, Jenifer Lynn Bobo. "Sacred Unions: Catharine Sedgwick, Maria Edgeworth, and Domestic-Political Fiction," PhD dissertation Florida State U. 2004. Dissertation Abstracts International 64(10): 3685-A. DA3109266, 182p.
- Robbins, Sarah. "'The Future Good and Great of our Land': Republican Mothers, Female Authors, and Domesticated Literacy in Antebellum New England," New England Quarterly 2002 75(4): 562-591 in JSTOR
- Yin, Joanna. "Calvinist Grace In Captivity And Trickster Narratives: Catharine Maria Sedgwick's 'Hope Leslie'," Studies In Puritan American Spirituality 2001 7: 183-212
External links
- Married or Single? Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection.